Andris Nelsons Appointed Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director

The Boston Symphony Orchestra announced today that Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons has been appointed as the organization's new music director, just the fifteenth since the orchestra's founding in 1881.

Nelsons, 34, will be the youngest music director to lead the BSO in more than a century when he assumes the post in the 2014-15 season. He succeeds James Levine, who served as the BSO music director from 2004 through 2011. Nelsons's contract with the orchestra specifies an initial five-year term, during which time he will lead eight to ten weeks of programs during the 2014-15 season and twelve weeks of programs during each subsequent year. He will also conduct several programs each summer at Tanglewood.

"I am deeply honored and touched that the Boston Symphony Orchestra has appointed me its next music director, as it is one of the highest achievements a conductor could hope for in his lifetime," Nelsons said in a press release issued today by the BSO. "Each time I have worked with the BSO I have been inspired by how effectively it gets to the heart of the music, always leaving its audience with a great wealth of emotions. So it is with great joy that I truly look forward to joining this wonderful musical family and getting to know the beautiful city of Boston and the community that so clearly loves its great orchestra. As I consider my future with the Boston Symphony, I imagine us working closely together to bring the deepest passion and love that we all share for music to ever greater numbers of music fans in Boston, at Tanglewood, and throughout the world."

Nelsons will serve as the BSO music director designate during the company's 2013-14 season, which will find him leading October concerts featuring soloist Paul Lewis, in addition to a concert performance of Salome in March 2014. Prior to that Nelsons will lead a July 27 performance of Verdi's Requiem at Tanglewood.

Nelsons made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March 2011, leading a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 at Carnegie Hall. Last summer, he lead the Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as part of Tanglewood's gala seventy-fifth anniversary concert, and Nelsons made his Symphony Hall debut in January conducting a program that included Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

Nelsons, who is married to soprano Kristine Opolais, began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. Since 2008, he has served as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and has regularly conducted international orchestras that include the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; in addition, Nelsons is also a frequent presence on the podium in opera houses that include the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival.